Song of a Reformed Headhunter

Beneath the gleaming facade of Singapore lies a palpable angst among its people. Through the perceptive analysis of interviews with 92 Singaporeans of different ethnicities, classes, educational levels, occupations, genders, and marital statuses, Singaporean sociologist TEO You Yenn puts her finger  on the sore spot in her new book Unease: Life in Singapore Families . Cannily she locates this gnawing sense of unease in the gap between national aspirations and familial realities. Singapore claims to be pro-family, and yet family life is hectic, anxious, and burdensome. What follows is a fine-grained examination of societal structure (institutions, policies, etc.) and culture (norms, values, habits, etc.), the former creating the latter, the latter reinforcing the former, including a chapter devoted to gender and another to class. The book would be of interest only to scholars and Singaporeans if it does not also have penetrating things to say about inequality. The problem of inequal...

Chloe is a good friend and poet. Her second book PERFORATED marks an advance over her first VIABLE. The strengths of the first are still present in the second: an intimate but unassuming voice, an observant tenderness towards self and others, the willingness to broach difficult subjects. In the second book, the personal references widen out into the world. The Italian touchstones are handled with greater range and depth. My favorites in this regard are the opening poem "Pantheon," which ends distinctively yet inclusively in the way an Italian dialect "relies on the plural/ second person, voi," and the poem "Etruscan Bronzes," concludes soberly about the transience of youth: These bronze figures, from their height of youth, artist's hand concealed by the smoothing of time, gaze upon a far-off horizon long buried.

An attractive quality of these poems is the outsider's constant searching for self and form. "Mirror" is not only the title of one of Zhang Zao's most famous poems but also a recurring trope in his oeuvre. Thoroughly grounded in both Chinese and European literature, he seeks "a new tension and melting point," as Bei Dao wrote in his personal recollection of the author, included in this book. How successful are his sonnet sequences, "Kafka to Felice" and "Dialogue with Tsvetaeva"? The Chinese originals strike as too full of words and ideas, and so lack the pressure cooker of the sonnet form. The free-verse experiments are more interesting, often ranging and strange. One has the great title "Song a Wall Driller and the Ultimate Ear," but the poem, in fact, pages 179 to 186, are missing from my edition.  The poem I like best is called "Fly." It has something of John Donne's playful eroticism, but also the concision I ...

A richly detailed portrait of a man who tries so hard to gain some measure of autonomy from a distinctly impoverished background and a stultifying dependent family. Mr. Biswas is not lovable, but he is finally admirable for his ceaseless efforts to find a place of his own. In his quest for a house, he also exposes the place and relations of the Indian people in Trinidad.

I'm releasing the first track of my album TO THE TUNE on Saturday, July 4th. The track "You Are My Sister" is composed, sung, and played by the incredible Debbie Chou, with lyrics by me. On the 250th anniversary of the US Declaration of Independence, I'd like to celebrate our whole human family. Other tracks by other collaborating artists from the album will be released weekly. Follow me by clicking this link to be the first to hear when I release new tracks. All the songs are based on my new poetry collection TO THE TUNE (Bench Press, July 15, 2026). Please consider getting a copy or two. All sales proceeds go to the Transformative Justice Collective for their fight against the death penalty in Singapore. Thanks for reading and listening!

A very unusual gay love novel. It has romance, true, but the romance between the men is short-lived, whereas the lavender marriages continue in shadows and memories. The novel has as much, if not more, to say about the women who find themselves married to gay men as it does about the gay men themselves. And the lovers in the novel are not physically attractive. How could they be when they are disfigured by poverty, hard manual labor, and starvation, not only in rural China, but also in NYC, to which they emigrate with such hope? They are not ennobled by love; instead, they struggle to love and forgive. Finally, the novel is also a tender portrait of the Fuzhounese community living in East Broadway in NYC in the 80s, its scattering in the naughts, and the hardships of those who remain during the COVID pandemic. A genuinely poignant work, it deserves to be widely read by the LGBTQ community and beyond.

An immense scholarly achievement. Erudite, persuasive, and gracefully written, it is the kind of intellectual history that changes our understanding of ourselves, our ideas, our cultures, and our world. Yes, it focuses on the strain of anti-Judaism in Western thinking, but it is also about the making and writing of history more generally. Particularly I learned from its analysis of Marx. That in critiquing the evils of capitalism, Marx not only deployed the hated figure of the Jew, but also claimed the figure's reality in society. He thought he was doing sociology as well as economic theory, and so opened the possibility to future persecution of "real" Jews. It is too easy to slip from capitalism to Jewry in one's thinking. A fault that plagues the Left. 

"Ethnographies are mountains and endure," writes Dentan, but "theories are mayflies and don't." This work of ethnography is certain to endure like the mountain it is, and its theory about Semai peaceability is likely to be developed, strengthened, and affirmed by future ethnographers. To state its theory simplistically, Dentan argues that Semai peaceability originated as a functioning adaptation to Malay and British invasion, colonization, and child slavery. The Semai response to overwhelming violence, rape, and kidnapping is to flee, and when they cannot flee from the encroaching hegemonic state, to "surrender," in the author's specific sense of acting with the understanding that success is not within their control. The alternative is death and extinction. Semai elaborated this response into a religion of demon lovers (identification with one's oppressors), protective rituals, an egalitarian ethos, and a respectful way of raising kids, all des...

Yu-Mei is a good friend, and she gave me a copy of this, her debut novel. I read it over two afternoons and enjoyed it very much. It is tightly plotted, inhabited by memorable characters, and written in a lively style. A Singaporean on the run from the law encounters other overseas Singaporeans who are pursuing lives considered illicit in the country. It is a very clever conceit, executed with verve and pathos. It calls into question the untoward criminalization of Singaporean lives and loves.

It is a novel about family as much as it is about romantic love, a novel about art-making as much as it is about immigration, a novel about dispossession as much as it is about privilege, a novel about ghosts as much as it is about the living. As Sonia the fiction writer asks and answers herself, "What united these wayward stories? The ocean. When she swam, she felt swimming beneath her in the depths a chimera. She couldn't see its form, but it was still an intimacy." Desai makes me intimate with an ocean of feelings.

I read the novel quickly in two sittings, even though it is not terribly well written. The plot is only serviceable, the characters are cardboard thin, and the writing is merely functional. I kept reading to the end, even though the ending was disappointing, because, as I discovered on reflection, that the novel appealed to some of my own worst instincts. I like reading about success, especially literary success, and how it is not truly merited; it sates my envy of others. I also like having my biases confirmed—biases against the publishing industry, against white people, against wealthy and good-looking people; I like to be right. This is not to say that my biases are unfounded; they are an outgrowth of my interactions with a racist, classist and superficial society. However, the angel of my reading self likes to think that great literature challenges our preconceptions and enlarges our understanding, but that was not what happened with my encounter with YELLOWFACE.

 An acute account of Morocco's transition to modernity and independence as depicted through a well-to-do family living in the ancient capital of Fez. The earlier chapters, which establish the seemingly static world of the past, were too leisurely paced for me, although they offer pleasurable descriptions of the old medina and its physical and social environments. The story quickens with the entry of the second son Abd al-Rahman to a "secular academy," where he learns to question authority and, ultimately, to fight for national independence. The daughter Aisha is mainly used as an illustration of the intellectual and social restrictions confronting upper-class Moroccan women; her story does not become integral to the main political plot. The third and youngest son merely hovers at the periphery of the novel. Most interesting is the dark-skinned son from the patriarch's concubine and enslaved servant, whose understanding of his status leads him to become a judge, a cog ...

 A really enjoyable read. I especially appreciate the weaving of the writings of Moroccans into the fascinating story of Matisse in the country, so we get to see not only Matisse's view of the country, but also the country's view, so to speak, of Matisse. The autonomy, dignity, respect, and equality that Matisse gave to his Moroccan human subjects, such as Zorah and the Riffian, is beautifully drawn out from his diaries, interviews, and, most importantly, paintings. I've always loved the mysterious painting "The Moroccans" in MoMA, and this biography makes beautifully clear the history of Matisse's engagement with Islamic art and North Africa that led up to its climactic finish in the painting. Morocco gave Matisse his resoundingly original answer to Cubism. 

 Compulsively readable. Some of the links are highly speculative, but the dots are connected in a pleasing pattern.

There are lyrical poems in James Fenton's Out of Danger, and then there are poems that are very nearly song lyrics. Both give pleasure, though arguably pleasure of different kinds. The book has keen observation, social conscience, and musical intelligence in abundance. Are the rhymes worn-out in places, like tires losing their treads? Maybe, but the Philippines and other South Pacific islands provide new rhymes and treads. Pádraig Ó Tuama is a genial, acute, and personable guide to these 50 poems about a range of outward-looking subjects. It is a good snapshot of contemporary Anglo-American verse, with a few oldies thrown in. I did not think that all the poems were as good as Ó Tuama said, but it would be a big surprise if I did. 

 Elaine Castillo's book of essays How to Read Now features a lit bomb on its cover. By its devastating critique of Nobel prize-winner Peter Handke's fascist sympathies and beloved Californian writer Joan Didion's settler-colonialist views, the book is necessarily blowing up Castillo's relations with certain influential parts of the literary establishment. If you have enough of coddling book reviews that read more like publishing blurbs than literary criticism, you will keenly appreciate Castillo's take-no-prisoners, and razor-sharp, approach to reading these and other white authors. The courage and honesty is undeniable.  More than attacks on individual authors, however, How to Read Now wants to destroy the harmful ways in which readers are expected by authors and publishers to center white experience: to treat it uncritically as "universal," "existential," and free of political taint, whereas the work of BIPOC writers is treated as mere ethnog...

 Weekly column written for the Singapore Unbound newsletter. Sign up here .  THE PROGRESSIVE HOPE On Tuesday, 33-year-old Zohran Kwame Mamdani won the Democratic nomination for the New York City mayoralty,  and he is now the firm favorite to win the election in November. Against billionaire donors and the Democratic establishment who supported the corrupt and scandal-ridden ex-NY governor Andrew Cuomo, Mamdani ran an inspiring, grassroots campaign, firmly focused on making NYC affordable for all, which won the votes not only of the young college-educated, but also of working-class neighborhoods such as Bay Ridge, Bensonhurst, Dyker Heights, Sunset Park, and Brighton Beach – all areas that swung rightward in the 2024 presidential election,  according to the Guardian .  The size of his victory in November will determine how far he can overcome the city's powerful vested interests and enact his election promises of free childcare, free buses, rent stabilizatio...

  The novel stakes everything on our interest in the narrator (his lover Erica is a thin, almost cardboard, character). Changez's story—from love to hate for America—is credible, but herein lies the problem. It does not offer any surprising or complex insight into the predicament or psychology of such a character. The same premise treated by Dostoevsky of "Notes from Underground" or even Murakami of "Norwegian Wood" would have resulted in an indelible portrait of mature dissent or youthful wistfulness.

  To the Tune of “Shout” by Tears for Fears   “In the days leading up to the May 3 elections—and Singapore offers one of the shortest windows for campaigning, only nine days—political rallies organized by opposition parties were packed, and enthusiasm for their candidates seemed real.”—Salil Tripathi, in  “Why Singapore’s Ruling Party Won Yet Again,”  Foreign Policy , May 5 th , 2025 What plane will you fly in and out of Singapore? I’ll write a poem, not about,  of  Singapore.   Respect the voters’ choice, say the politicians. When the choice weighs the crimes and clout of Singapore.   Pissed off, that’s how I feel, go and tell your masters. God! I’m sick and tired, no doubt, of Singapore.   Outdoing one another on the screen, the pundits wow but so does the sexist lout of Singapore.   I wanna scream and shout. And let it all out. I wanna scream the scream, shout the shout, of Singapore.   The public square is out-of-bounds for PDA....

 Weekly column written for the Singapore Unbound newsletter. Sign up here . When two young women, while trying to talk to Singapore's Law and Home Affairs Minister K. Shanmugam about the misuse of POFMA (Protection from Online Falsehoods and Manipulation Act) , were provoked to flip the bird to the cameras of his minders, the fast-and-furious criticisms of the sisters from politicians of the governing party, civil-society actors, and community leaders were telling about the rigid restrictions of political discourse in the country. As  Jom  puts it, "When we are quick to judge, to believe authority over activists, to pine for some imagined decorum in a dialogue biased by the disparity in power, we leave out much from our collective consciousness, our understanding of who we are." The sisters have given  their own version of the event , and I choose to believe them instead. If the full video were to be released, and not just the seven minutes that whistled to the ...